#local azem shard takes to ass-kicking like a fish to water

[emcapi-gaming]

Ok, so I mentioned in the tags on my last post that there are 3 major factors in Ardwin's likelihood of being attracted to someone (excluding non-specific Vibes and external context). In no particular order, they are:

A. Pretty, especially in an androgynous way

B. Badass, especially in terms of melee combat

C. Understands Her, especially on a unique level

A brief ranking of her various notable romantic interests on that scale:

Muriel (the gladiator from the blacksmith quests): 6/10 pretty, 7/10 badass, 3/10 understanding. Being seen as an artisan first and a fighter second was definitely a novelty for Ardwin, she is not immune to Being Flirted With By Hot Girl, and they had a very brief, casual fling around the ARR patches.

Ardbert: 5/10 pretty, 10/10 badass, 100/10 understanding. Literal and metaphorical soulmates. Most likely to be eternally bonded, except they aren't particularly interested in the big ceremony. Also they think it would be more than a little redundant, given that their souls are semi-fused and they share a body 95% of the time. You don't really get more 'eternally bonded' than that.

G'raha: 8/10 pretty, 8/10 badass, 3/10 understanding. Definitely saw her as The Warrior Of Light over simply Ardwin, at least initially, which was a pretty significant turn-off (though this improved later). -100/10 for trust issues bad enough that any romantic relationship between them is totally unfeasible (see previous post).

Zenos: 7/10 pretty, 10/10 badass, 5/10 understanding. Called her out for being a feral little shit who loves fighting, which gave him solid points on the "unique understanding" front, because pretty much everyone else just sees The Hero. He really called a WAR main a savage beast and she was like "thanks! I do try!" She reciprocated (to a lesser degree) his battle-horny and regular horny towards her, though I don't think he recognized the second part, which Ardwin was in denial about all the way until she got back from Ultima Thule.

Fray: 8/10 pretty, 9.5/10 badass, ∞/10 understanding. Shares Ardwin's appearance (except with gold eyes), which leans a little more towards handsome than pretty. Knows her better than she knows herself, ironically, because they're literally made of all the stuff she was repressing. Half point deduction on the badass scale because she did beat them the one time they fought.

Zero: 10/10 pretty, 10/10 badass, 9/10 understanding. She showed up, kicked ass, and then turned out to be very uniquely capable of understanding the Zenos situation (because she had a front row seat to that trainwreck), the Ardbert situation (because having Some Other Guy Who You Sort Of Ate Still Hanging Around is apparently normal for voidsent), and just The Horrors in general. Point docked from understanding because she (accidentally) gave Ardwin a horrible PTSD episode/panic attack with her stunt with the Light crystal wall. (This was nearly a disaster for their relationship, but then Fray raked Ardwin over the coals for being a huge hypocrite, given that - between RPR and DRK - she's been doing practically the exact same thing with Darkness.)

Arkose: 10/10 pretty, 3+/10 badass, 8+/10 understanding. Also soulmates, though there's more of a gap because of very different life experiences. Ardwin and Ardbert followed really similar paths with adventuring, hitting stuff with axes, saving the world, etc; Arkose has, until very recently, been stuck in a literal bubble and unable to fight. The plus signs, though, is because now that they have the opportunity, they're catching up fast. (They're also very new as a character, so I can't totally predict how they'll end up developing, but I'm guessing they will end up around 9-9.5/10 badass and >11/10 understanding.)